Finding God in Domestic Chaos

Adventus Calendarius Maximus

As we begin the Season of AdvAdent I have a question about your Advent Calendar: is it used to mark down the days until Jesus’ birth or to count down the number of shopping days until Christmas? There’s confusion around the two approaches, of course. And it doesn’t help that you can’t open the first window until December 1st, even though Advent quite often begins in November (as it does this year on 11/29).

Fortunately a number of high-quality online Advent calendars have popped up over the past few years. These have been put together by either large churches or dioceses so they have a better liturgical sense than your average CVS or Wal-Mart Advent calendar. And, yes, they actually begin on the first Sunday of Advent rather than December 1st.

Appropriately enough the Diocese of Bethlehem (Pennsylvania, not the actual birthplace of Jesus) has a great page of Advent resources. Click here to find several online Advent calendars (including a great one from Trinity Wall Street), Advent devotions, family wreath-lighting ceremonies, and craft projects. Good stuff.

One positive and one negative about online Advent calendars: siblings won’t fight over who gets to click open the window because you can always close it and open it again and again. But technology will have to evolve a bit further if you hope to find anything tasty behind the windows.